Below are links from which you can download InfoCentral4Wine. Note the name. You need to install Wine to run either pet. Loading a wine SFS wouldn't work. There are two versions: a .pet named infocentral4wine-.943, and a .pet named infocentral4wine-.94. Version ".943" can be used in Puppy Version 4.3, and Puplets based on it. Version ".94" has been tested and work in Puppies and Puplets versions 4.12 and 4.2, and may work in Puppies and Puplets based on prior versions. See next post. SFSes are no longer available. For an explanation, see next post. There is also a link from which you can download the "building blocks" with which you may be able to build either your own pet (for prior or later Puppies) or a combine InfoCentral-Wine SFS. See next post for explanation. Lastly, there's a Portable Infocentral which will work, but only as a relational database manager, with XP and some versions of wine. If after reading the following you decide that InfoCentral as a relational database manager may be useful, but that you have no need for its file management capabilities, try the Portable Version first since, as any portable, it can potentially be used with any operating system.

To use the .pet InfoCentral’s Object-related File management capabilities, after installation, you must run the infoc4sys script, located in the hidden .wine folder, about which more later. (And see next post). After running infoc4sys, a reboot is necessary.

InfoCentral was created as both a relational database, and an object-oriented file management system. Unlike an ordinary database where you are limited to defining fields in a record, InfoCentral gives you some flexibility in defining records, themselves, and great flexibility both in defining the fields within a record and how each record relates to any (or all) other records.

Why use a relational database? We live in a complex world. And regrettably, we all suffer memory lapses. InfoCentral is an information management system which doesn’t. Just to provide a slightly absurd example, assume you’re in middle management: it pays for your to know about your boss’s personal life. He’s been married three time, currently via civil union to Sam. He’s on friendly terms with his first wife, Joan. Not so much his second, Gloria. With Joan he had four children, Ted, Fred, Jed, and Glynis. But his favorite child is Claire, the daughter of his second wife, Gloria, by her previous marriage to William. Claire is a Junior at Rider College. Sam has two children, Rhona and Mona. Their birthdays are, respectively, June 14th and November 21st. Can you’re PIM keep track of each of the foregoing persons, their birthdays, anniversaries, up-coming-important-events, their important business and social contacts, and each member of the “family’s” relationships with each other? InfoCentral can.

Are you a soccer/football/baseball fan? Keeping track of players, their statistics, what teams they played for, what positions they played, which teammates and managers they got along with, or didn’t?
Are you engaged in researching the history of The King’s Sixth Fusileers, taking notes of important battles fought, awards received, enemies encountered, terrain covered, weapons and tactics used, not yet certain which soldiers, tactics or events you will ‘spotlight,’ but also have to keep track of the sources you’ll refer to in your notes and bibliography?
InfoCental can. And when fully functional -see below- it can do more because it is also an object oriented operating system. As such, each file on your computer is just another object which can be connected to a record in InfoCentral. InfoCentral can call the application to create, open and modify a file. Not sure if it’s Rhona or Mona visiting their step-father (or worse you can’t remember their names): click on Sam, Click on Family, Click on Mona, Click on Photo and if that’s not her, click on Rhona, click on photo. [Explanation of the foregoing is in InfoC_README file].
Engaged in a project involving multiple people, schedules, letters, emails, formal reports, spread-sheets, databases, presentations, slide-shows, pictures, vids, what-have-you? If you set up InfoCentral to run as an file manager, it can link them all together. Of course, you could just keep everything in one folder, but what do you do when you need to use some of the above for your next project? With infoCentral, each file is an object that can be linked to an almost limitless number of other objects.
[Frankly, I've never used InfoCentral as a file manager. I acquired my first version while still running DOS, and when I migrated to Windows 98 and XP --thinking I already understood the program-- didn't read the manual. I only learned of the file management capability while analyzing Hilary BH Wright's port to Linux. See Footnote as to why I consider the utility of that capability somewhat limited but have tried to preserve it}.
Regardless of which version of InfoCentral you choose to download, within the my-documents folder you’ll find a copy of Corel’s User’s Manual, and an “InfoC_README” in rtf-format providing a Quick-Guide and Technical Instructions. “my-documents” Folder is found in your Home Folder.
While the pets will work "out of the box" as a relational database manager, to enable their use as object-oriented file managers, the script file "infoc4sys" found in the hidden ".wine" directory must be left-clicked and the Puplet rebooted. Clicking infoc4sys installs to the wine registry the classes needed by InfoCentral to operate as a file manager.

Once those classes have been added to wine's registry, as presently configured, InfoCentral can use Abiword, Gnumeric, OpenOffice, and Koffice, with the following limitations: InfoCentral was developed in the hay-day of DOS. To open the application associated with a file, InfoCentral uses such file’s 3-digit file extension, e.g., the “abw” in “myfile.abw” identifies it as an Abiword document. Both OpenOffice and Koffice use the file extensions odf, odp and ods for their Formula, Presentation and Spreadsheet Modules. On the assumption that more people will use OpenOffice, those file extensions have been associated with OpenOffice. The InfoC_README file contains instructions for changing those associations (very simple) and for adding other applications -such as graphics and Multimedia-- to InfoCentral’s repertoire (fairly complex). Gnumeric and many of the Koffice modules use DEFAULT file extensions greater than 3-digits. In order to overcome that problem, I’ve associated those applications with 3-digit extensions. A Table is provided in the README file. IF YOU USE INFOCENTRAL, YOU CAN STILL USE YOUR APPLICATIONS DIRECTLY (i.e., from Puppy’s Menu or a desktop icon), however, if you save a file using the application’s default extension, InfoCentral will not be able to open it. [A file saved with the ‘proper’ extension while using the application directly can later be added by InfoCentral to its records]. The default file-extension for gnumeric is “gnumeric.” Its most logical reduction may have been “gnu.” Unfortunately, under Puppy Linux -but I am advised not some other distributions- that extension seems to be associated with archiving applications. Rather than break something, gnumeric has been associated with both “xls” and “slk.” Gnumeric appears happy with that arrangement. ('')
Location. Location. Location. Under Puppy, InfoCentral can utilize Puppy’s ability to write to and read from any partition. The InfoCentral pets install to wine’s drive_c:\Program Files. When InfoCentral STARTS FOR THE FIRST TIME, it will look for a file “Standard.ica.” If it doesn’t find it, it will offer to create one using a compressed file, “STANDARD.ZIB.” STANDARD.ZIB is located in the Templates directory within the ICwin7 folder. Also in that folder is another directory named “Local” which is where InfoCentral, when first started expected to find Standard.ica. If you look in the Local folder you will find a series of files named Standard with various file endings. These are the indexes used by InfoCentral, of which Standard.ica is the master index. They Will Grow as You Add Data. After several years of research, I have one which uses 2.3 Megs of hard-drive. Although you must keep the entire series of indexes together, they can be located in any folder, having any name, anywhere on your computer. This means you can copy, move or create a database anywhere, and InfoCentral can open its .ica file from there. [When creating a new database, you get to name it/its Indexes]. However, as an Operating System InfoCentral uses Hard-links to locate data files. Consequently, if after creating a link to a file from, or within, InfoCentral, you move the File or the Database, the Links Will Be Broken. [Because InfoCental uses bash-scripts and associated “Templates” found in its LinuxProgramLinks folder to open Linux applications, it can find such applications]. Accordingly, it is recomended that you locate your InfoCentral databases in a separate partition before using InfoCentral to create links to datafiles.

If, when you try to start InfoCentral for the first time it complains “Ole 2" wasn’t found, the problem lies not with InfoCentral but rather with the version of wine you’re using. The only solution is to replace your version of wine. It worked well with technosaurus’s versions thru 1.1.20 but didn’t work with 1.1.24. I’m currently using green_dome’s 1.1.39.

On the other hand, the Portable Version of InfoCentral works fine using the wine-1.1.20-i486.pet, but complains of an ole2 problem under 1.1.39.

Acknowledgments: I am not the developer of InfoCentral. I am just someone who has found InfoCentral invaluable for over 20 years, learned that it could be run under Linux and decided to make it easily usable by the Puppy Community. ‘Though if I knew when I decided to “package” InfoCentral what I know now, I would have followed that invaluable advice surreptitiously handed down in every military establishment: “Never volunteer!” On the other hand, while working on this project I’ve learned a great deal about BASH, Linux, and XP. The real credit for this application goes to:

Bruce Bastian and Alan Ashton who developed InfoCentral, an outgrowth of DataPerfect, as a module for use with WordPerfect Suite 7.
Corel(Tm) which, after its acquisition of WordPerfect from Novell, has graciously made Infocentral available to the public free-of-charge. <ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/Suites/infocentral/> If you still run Windows 95, 98 or Millenium, your OS may be able to use that version.
Michael Koenecke, who has supported Infocentral since its appearance, developed very useful macros (regretfully the macro function doesn’t work under Linux) and maintains a website, <http://www.macros.koenecke.us/> , pertaining to InfoCentral, including links to the NT-enabled version of InfoCentral that runs natively under XP and, I believe, Windows 2K. It was from that link that all versions I’ve packaged are derived. Also on that site is a link to other ZIB files I have not included, and the User Guide I have.
Kevin Krammer, Jeremy White and A. Tres Finocchiaro, who developed xdg-open so that programs running under wine could open Linux applications.
Hilary BH Wright, who adapted xdg-open for use with InfoCentral.
Ralf Treu, who developed the code enabling the use of xdg-open when Rox is employed as the file manager.
Barry Kauler, who created a Linux distribution, simple-enough for a newbie to use, resource friendly-enough to be used on my Pentium II, 160 Meg Thinkpad when I became exasperated by XP, and so easily customizable that I had to begin to experiment.
Trio, who developed Petmaker, relieving me of a great deal of drudgery and confusion.
ttuuxxx, whose enthusiasm and perseverance continues to inspire.
Mu, technosaurus, tempestuous, and a host of other Devs from whose comments and insights even a newbie can learn.
And JohnMurga, Flash, Ian, Lobster, GuestToo, and deshlab, without whose dedication the Puppy Linux Forum could not served so successfully as the vehicle for the exchange of information, ideas, and enthusiasm.

As a relational database, InfoCentral is a great program for organizing all types of information. I have serious doubts regarding its utility as a file manager because of its dependence upon hard-links. It was created with the assumption that there would only be one operating system found at C:\. While the database indexes can be located anywhere on your computer, if you use more than one operating system (dual-boot) the paths from an index to the file it indexed will not be identical if your operating systems are not on the same partition. Similarly, moving your databases to a different location (something you may want to do when installing an up-grade or another OS) will also break the links. Despite those limitations, I have tried to preserve the file management capabilities because, while I do not expect to use them, others may find them of value despite the limitations. And, InfoCentral may soon be only a program of use under Linux. It will not run under Vista, and may only run under those more expensive versions of Windows7 which provide XP compatibility via a form of virtualware.

Note to "petmakers": The InfoCentral Pet I made under 4.31 could not be started via the Menu under Puppies based on Versions 4.12 or 4.2. Apparently, the 4.31 desktop file wasn't recognized as such, and had to be re-created, even though the re-created desktop file used the same arguments. Ergo, there are now two different pets.

SFSes, their potential, and problems with building them:
Like all SFSes, an InfoCentral SFS would have advantages over a pet. Not requiring installation, it would not use SAVE file space, and if you dual-boot different Puppies each can use the same SFS at least as a relational database. [Because InfoCentral File-management capability depends on the use of hard-links, that use is conditional: each Operating System must be on the same partition otherwise it may “see” a file’s location as requiring a different route. While creating files from within InfoCentral remains possible, to open a file created while using a different Puppy or XP would require browsing to it, which would redefine the path to that file such that the same problem would arise when you tried to open it using a different OS. In short, more trouble than its worth.]
Despite the foregoing, I created SFSes using both version 3 and version 4 compression only to discover that they didn't work with SFS versions of wine. There appears to be a "timing problem." The default fonts used by InfoCentral were not recognized (an inconvenience, as InfoCentral would still open after complaining of their absence) but after running infoc4sys (to install the classes necessary for InfoCentral to operate as a file manager) and rebooting, either InfoCentral would not open, complaining of an Ole2 problem previously not present, or would fail to open files complaining that the necessary classes were not found in the registry, even though the registry showed they were present.
So I tried to create a "Combo" wine-with-infoCentral-installed SFS but discovered that it is beyond my level of knowledge. When a wine pet is installed, it creates both a drive_c folder, and within that a 'Program Files' folder. InfoCentral installs its ICWin7 folder into the latter. Wine SFSes apparently create the above folders "on-the-fly," or at least they are not present if the SFS is mounted and dissembled. So I wasn't sure where to place the ICWin7 folder in a build. Similarly, the system.reg and user.reg files present in the .wine folder of a loaded SFS don't appear in the build, leaving me with questions how to add the classes required by InfoCentral to operate as a file manager. Accordingly, I've made the InfoCentral Building Blocks available if anyone else wants to try.
It should also be noted that the SFS problems only concern the use of InfoCentral's file management functions. An SFS without those is less useful than the portable version of InfoCentral. The latter provides InfoCentral's as a Relational Database Manager under wine, and is fully functional under XP. Along the same lines, Trio's Petmaker can be used to convert the pets provided into SFSes, which should run, but only as relational database managers, (after complaining of missing fonts) when used with a wine SFS (as long as you don't try to add the now unnecessary classes to wine's registry).

I've been exploring Puppeee on an Asus 701SD. After installing green_dome's wine 1.1.43, I examined system.reg and discovered that the default fonts were in /usr/share/fonts. Earlier versions of wine looked for fonts in drive_c/windows/fonts, which is where the pets (and build instructions) placed those required by InfoCentral. I don't know in which version of wine the structural change occurred. Moving or copying the fonts from there to /usr/share/fonts resolved all but one of the "missing fonts" messages. Fixedsys.ttf is still reported as absent. However, I noticed that the message referred to it with a capital F, while the font, itself, was named with a fixedsys.ttf, with a small f. Renaming it did not solve the problem. Perhaps a reboot is necessary.

Hi mikesir,
I am running wine-1.1.38 converted to and loaded as an SFS.

I downloaded and extracted the portable version, infocentral.tar.gz. It extracted to a folder called infocentral in my download folder.

Entering this folder I clicked ICWIN.EXE and received several font error messages and clicked through them. I then received an error message

Quote:

The iBase file Z:\mnt\home\infocNew\Local\Standard.ica cannot be found

I moved the infocentral folder to /mnt/home/infocentral and renamed it to /mnt/home/infocNew. I then symlinked the TTF fonts in /mnt/home/infocNew/Fonts to /usr/share/fonts/default/TTF/ and all the fonts to /root/.wine/drive_c/windows/Fonts/.

Now when I click ICWIN.EXE I get a nice looking database for a Mr. John Doe. All I need to do now is learn how to use this. I'm not a database expert by any means but I am fluent in msaccess. This looks promising.

BTW, I should mention that I am running Quirky21 and my /mnt/home is ext3, although I doubt that makes a difference.

It was created with the assumption that there would only be one operating system found at C:\. While the database indexes can be located anywhere on your computer, if you use more than one operating system (dual-boot) the paths from an index to the file it indexed will not be identical if your operating systems are not on the same partition. Similarly, moving your databases to a different location (something you may want to do when installing an up-grade or another OS) will also break the links

I'm writing as someone who uses WINE (I actually have set the HOME directory for it on a tmpfs RAMDrive). I can state that WINE (unlike native Windows) reads ext2 type filesystems as it would a VFAT one.. The important difference however is that the Windows programs seem to be unaware of symlinks. It will open a symlink's destination seamlessly.

On my system, I have symlinked the /tmp/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32 directory to a directory on a VFAT partition.

This might be a solution to differing boot configurations as symlinks can be reassigned on the fly and are themselves very small files and that means little IO is involved.

@ Peterm321: I'm not sure I understood your suggestion completely. As I mentioned above, I'm just the packager and drew heavily on the work done by others. While I know wine has no problem with symlinks, I think InfoCentral running under wine employs wine's implementation of Explorer (with all XP Explorer's limitations) to carry out its file management functions.
There may another way to overcome the "hard-link problem," all of which are beyond my level of competence. For example, opening applications uses xdg, which might be extended to also open files other than the Templates located in LinuxProgramLinks. But unlike the open program routine which was written into InfoCentral as extensible via modification of WPICRUN.INI, the open file routine might require modification of the program's code. Under XP, that's possible as InfoCentral --like all WordPerfect programs circa 1998-/+ --was developed using a programming script which, at that time, was freely available. [As far as I know, the script doesn't run under wine, so modifications would have to be made under Windows, maybe 98Se or XP running in compatibility mode].

@jrb

Actually, the beauty of a relational database is that you don't have to learn much. You modify it to reflect how your mind works. Of course, there's always the problems of a programs capability and limitations. Hopefully, the ICManual.pdf and the first half of README.rtf --located in the Documents Folder within the same folder where you found ICWIN.EXE --will be of help.

If you find InfoCentral useful, consider it a partial repayment for the great debt we all owe you for your exceptional development of the ChoicePups and the sfs-linkers.

If you have the time, you might test the below modification. While it worked with the portable version, I can't be certain it would have had I not modified system.reg (as is the case on all my OSes). While I've expressed my doubts as the utility of using InfoCentral as a file manager in general, it might be useful if the portable version could create and open simple text files. Under the Tool section of InfoCentral's Menu is an item "Notepad" which opens a Notepad text editor. I guess it is the Notepad installed by wine as InfoCentral does not have its own. Use of that Notepad does not require modification of system.reg, with the potential for creating a OLE2 problem, since the installation of wine included the required classes. But files created by starting Notepad from the Tools menu are not indexed by InfoCentral. So, I did the following:

In the same folder where you found the InfoCentral executable, there's a file called WPICRUN.INI. Open it in a text editor.
Add the following:
To
[Templates]
Notepad=Notepad

Save the changes, close the text editor and reboot.
Restart InfoCentral. On the Infopad tab, with the cursor on and highlighting an object, such as John Doe, Right-click and select Create Related File. In the top window, type something like Basic Memo (Notepad) and click New Type. Click Add. Responding to the question
"Would you like to initialize the newly created ...?" Click No. Under Windows Application, select "Notepad Document".
Under Connection Description, click "Document". Click Advanced and then click "Specify Location". Click Browse, and browse to
/root/drive_c/windows/ and click notepad.exe, then click OK. In the dialogue box which opens, you can click the browse button
pertaining to "Data File Folder" to select your default folder. Click OK, twice (3 times?) until the dialogue box for naming the document appears. Give the document a name and, if you want, a description. Click OK and then, to the question regarding creation of the file, click Yes. Type something, and then click File>Save. Close the file. There should now be an object on your Infopad tab window with the name you gave it, linked to the object you originally highlighted. Now, with the cursor on the notepad object you created, highlighting it, right-click and select open. If things worked, the notepad file you created should open. Let me know either way.

Thanks for trying InfoCentral.

If I get a chance, I'll repackage the pets, moving the required fonts to usr/share/fonts.

In the top window, type something like Basic Memo (Notepad) and click New Type. Click Add. Responding to the question
"Would you like to initialize the newly created ...?" Click No. Under Windows Application, select "Notepad Document".
Under Connection Description, click "Document". Click Advanced and then click "Specify Location". Click Browse, and browse to
/root/drive_c/windows/ and click notepad.exe, then click OK. In the dialogue box which opens, you can click the browse button
pertaining to "Data File Folder" to select your default folder. Click OK, twice (3 times?) until the dialogue box for naming the document appears. Give the document a name and, if you want, a description.

At this point the following message appeared:

Quote:

Before you can use this command you need to create a field called "File Tracking ID." Make it an Alpha/Numeric field with a length of 4.

Ordinarily, the InfoCentral setup program installs to C:\ (or wine's drive_c:) and writes to the windows/wine's registry. Desiring to make "installation" of a portable version as painless as possible, I ran the InfoCentral setup program thru Portable Apps Creator, http://portableapps.com/node/9909. That enabled me to "install" it to a folder on a Flash Drive, without writing to the registry. That folder then can be copied anywhere and was used in the portable version that you downloaded. The process apparently looses some functionalities beyond those which wine, itself, is unable to perform.
The original InfoCentral setup program is contained in the Building Block's version. After running setup, adding the Notepad definition to WPICRUN.INI should ('') enable the ability to call Notepad via "Create Related File" so that resulting files will be indexed.
Or maybe not.('')

Of course, anyone installing InfoCentral via its setup program one can still move/create databases anywhere on their computer.

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